Tibetan students marched against government policy to use Chinese language in class (Photo courtesy of Free Tibet)

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Report, Asia

BEIJING, China – More than 1,000 Tibetan students marched to protest against unconfirmed government policies to mandate the exclusive use of Chinese language in classes.

The peaceful rally took place in and around Tongren, known as Rebkong in Tibetan, where it has recently witnessed widespread anti-government rioting in the spring of 2008. At the time, scores were arrested and a crackdown waged against Buddhist monasteries, capturing the world’s attention before the Summer Olympics in Beijing that year.

Some monks were to be seen amongst protestors on Tuesday, who, alongside students, shouted “equality of ethnic groups” and “freedom of language,” according to the International Campaign for Tibet. Free Tibet, the London based campaign group, and U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia estimated the total number of participants at anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000.

Students from half a dozen schools gathered and marched together, chanting slogans against unconfirmed plans to supplant the use of Tibetans.

One of the teachers who also participated in the march said police did not intervene and students were not penalized by school administrators for partaking in the march.

“The students marched peacefully. Their only demand was for continued use of their mother tongue,” he said.

Although ethnic “Han” Chinese consists of more than 95 percent of Chinese population, there are currently 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the government. Tibetans are one of them. Language, among other things, has been an emotional and complicated issue in Tibetan and other ethnic minority areas under Chinese rule.

While the government defends these policies by saying they aim to spur economic growth in the largely poor areas and better integration, many Tibetans fear the development of their areas and the migration of majority Han Chinese to them could destroy their traditional culture and ethnic identity.

The town’s schools use Mandarin and Tibetan alongside each other, and many teachers said there has not been official orders to switch entirely to Chinese. However, they said there are rumors and unconfirmed reports of a planned change in policy, which authorities never clarified.

“The Chinese are enforcing reforms which remind me of the Cultural Revolution,” another teacher said.

“This reform is not only a threat to our mother tongue, but is in direct violation of the Chinese constitution, which is meant to protect our rights.”

For more information, please see:

The New York Times – China: Tibetan Students March To Protest Education Policies – 21 October 2010

BBC News – Tibetan students in China protest over language policy – 20 October 2010

Kansas City – Tibetan students protest use of Chinese in classes – 20 October 2010

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Child rights activists in Sri Lanka have criticized a plan by the prime minister ordain 2,600 boys as Buddhist monks by next May. Prime Minister Jayaratne says the move is designed to advance the ideology of Buddhism  and life the youth out of poverty.

 

Many Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka are usually ordained at a very young age. Not for nothing next May marks the 2,600th anniversary of Lord Buddha’s enlightenment.

Activists say are adamant over the number and age of the practice of ordaining monks at such a tender age. Reports have surfaced around child sexual abuse in the temples, thought these same accusations are vigorously denied by authorities.

Sri Lanka’s National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) has arrested scores of Buddhist monks for alleged sex abuse of boys in their care in recent years.

Just one monk was convicted on sex abuse charges. There have been numerous allegations of abuse from parents and children.

Mr. Jayaratne  says all the young monks will be looked after by the government

Mr. Jayaratne told BBC News the young monks would be helped financially and funded to go to university. The government also plans to provide financial assistance to their families, he said.

Child rights experts claim this fashion of recruitment steals the youth from young boy, in a country hoping to motivate its population; there are more viable options opponent’s challenges.

“I can’t fully compare it with Tamil Tigers’ child soldier recruitment, but there are some similar aspects”, Professor Harendra de Silva Child rights activist said.

They say children as young as 10 have a universal right to be with parents, siblings and friends until they reach the age of 18.

Dr. Hiranthi Wijemanne, an activist who is nominated by Sri Lanka to a United Nation child rights panel, said the leading Buddhist monks should show an example by opposing such schemes.

“I think it is our duty to oppose ordaining boys as it is a clear violation of children’s rights,” she said. She articulates that children from wealthy families are rarely ordained at such a young age.

Leading pediatrician, Harendra de Silva, urged the Sri Lankan authorities disallow the Buddhist temples to repeat “what happened in the Catholic Church”, with clear reference to the child sex abuse scandal that led Pope Benedict to offer a formal apology in recent news.

“I strongly condemn this crime against our children,” he said, adding that the government should improve the country’s economy rather than “allowing the children to be abused”.

No public discussion regarding child abuse, particularly in Buddhist temples, will be publicized as this topic is taboo in Sri Lanka, as it is in many conservative societies in South Asia.

The BBC sought, Children’s Affair Minister Tissa Karalliyadda for the government’s interpretation of the wide spread hesitation and fear the boys could be abused, but she was unavailable for questions.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Sri Lankan activists oppose plan to train boys as monks – 15 October 2010

UPI World News –Group slams enforced monk recruitment – 15 October 2010

Lankajournal –Sri Lankan activists oppose plan to train boys as monks – 15 October 2010

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China — Two dozens of retired Chinese Communist Party members who once led the country under the leadership of Mao Zedong former Chairman, have challenged the government and called for freedom in speech and press.

The group, drawn from the military, state media, and academia, bluntly criticized the party’s Central Propaganda Department as an “invisible black hand” powerful enough to censor the prime minister Wen Jiabao’s call for greater political openness and an end to government control of media outlets.

The open letter by party elders including Li Rui, Mao’s secretary, was published on the Internet.

“What right does the Central Propaganda Department have to muzzle the speech of the premier?’’ stated the letter, referring to a branch of the party that focuses on ideology. “What right does it have to rob the people of our nation of their right to know what the premier said?’’

In late August, during a visit to the economically vibrant city of Shenzhen, Wen made remarks on the need for the Chinese government to adopt democratic election system. His speech, however, were never reported in most of the strictly controlled mainland press. Wen’s remarks to the U.N. General Assembly were also similarly vetted and removed in the mainland media when he made references to political reform.

The letter was released amid escalating tension following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo.

The Chinese government continued to express its vilification as it cancelled another meeting with Norwegian officials and denouncing the award as an offense to the Chinese people and a cunning plan to try to change the country’s political system.

“Some politicians from other countries are trying to use this opportunity to attack China,” Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday. He added that the prize, announced Friday, “shows disrespect for China’s judicial system” because the recipient is a convicted criminal under the Chinese law.

Liu was given the Peace Prize for his courage and struggle to advocate for human rights and democracy, the Nobel committee said Oct. 8. The 54-year-old political dissident was ordered jailed last year for 11 years for organizing Charter 08, an open letter demanding democratic elections and freedom of assembly, which are guaranteed in China’s constitution.

Although initially signed electronically by thousands of intellectuals, students and former Communist Party officials, Charter 08 has since been blocked on the Internet and is hardly known to any Chinese.

In the meantime, Liu’s wife updated her Twitter account harshly criticizing the government for keeping her under house arrest and said she hopes to travel to Norway to accept the prize on behalf of her husband.

In response to her confinement, Richard Buangan, a United States Embassy spokesman, said in an e-mail, “her rights should be respected, and she should be allowed to move freely without harassment.”

“We urge China to uphold its international human rights obligations and to respect the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all Chinese citizens,” he added.

For more information, please see:

The Boston Globe – Chinese elders call for more freedom – 14 October 2010

The New York Times – Beijing Calls Nobel Insult To People Of China – 12 October 2010

The Washington Post – In China, silence greets talk of reform – 13 October 2010

Protestors demanding a release of Liu, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient (Photo courtesy of BBC)

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – When a group of people – two dozen bloggers, rights lawyers and academics – gathered at a Beijing restaurant to celebrate the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, the police rushed in and arrested them.

Although 10 of the 20 people who had been picked up were released, three of them were given eight-day jail terms under the charge of “disturbing the peace” and seven were escorted out of Beijing, according to Zhang Zuhua, an activist who is in touch with the detainees.


Liu Xiaobo, the 54-year-old scholar and author, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding contribution to human rights, is currently serving an 11-year sentence on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” imposed after an allegedly unfair trial. 

Liu is widely recognized amongst activists as a prominent government critic who has repeatedly called for human rights protections, political accountability and democratization in China.

Ever since the Norwegian Committee announced the winner of the prize, the Chinese government reacted with unrestrained anger.

In a series of attempt to downplay the awarding of the prize, the chinese Government called in the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing for a dressing down, placed a number dissidents under house arrest and blocked nearly all Internet sites and news media from disseminating any information regarding the Nobel Peace Prize.

It was impossible for Chinese citizens or Web surfers to learn about the honor bestowed on their countryman. Plugging “Liu Xiaobo” or “Nobel Peace Prize” into a search engine resulted in blank screens and error messages.

Only the Global Times, an English-language newspaper controlled by the Chinese government, contained information on the prize, although in completely contrasting tone.

Liu, the newspaper’s unsigned editorial said, is “an incarcerated Chinese criminal.” Awarding him the prize was a “paranoid choice” that was “meant to irritate China.” The Nobel Peace Prize has been “degraded into a political tool that serves an anti-China purpose.

“It seems that instead of peace or unity in China, the Nobel committee would like to see the country split by an ideological rift, or better yet, collapse like the Soviet Union,” the editorial said.

Zhou Xiaozheng, director of the law of Sociology department at People’s University in Beijing, when asked about to which extent people are aware of either Liu or the Nobel Peace Prize, said, “[t]hey don’t know, and they don’t want to know, because it’s dangerous to know.”

“As soon as I hear a foreign journalist wants to know about the Nobel Peace Prize, I can sense the danger,” said Zhou.

In response to these hardline approaches by the Chinese government to silence the award, Catherine Baber, Deputy Asia-Pacific Director at Amnesty International, expressed concerns.

“This award can only make a real difference if it prompts more international pressure on China to release Liu, along with the numerous other prisoners of conscience languishing in Chinese jails for exercising their right to freedom of expression,” she said.

For more information, please see:

The New York Times – China, Angered by Peace Prize, Blocks Celebration – 10 October 2010

Amnesty International – LIU XIAOBO’S NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WIN PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON CHINA RIGHTS VIOLATIONS – 8 October 2010

The Los Angeles Times – Chinese media stay resolutely silent on Nobel winner – 10 October 2010